act natural | mi high

02 | Trojan K.O.R.P.S

'Loyalties are tested when a series of embarrassing incidents threaten to bring down M.I.9.'

THE OLD MI9 WAR ROOM LOOKED LIKE IT HADN'T BEEN TOUCHED IN YEARS. OR DUSTED, FOR THAT MATTER. MADDIE WAS NOSEY BUT LEARNT HER LESSON WHEN A FILE SHE PROBABLY WASN'T MEANT TO READ RELEASED A CLOUD OF SMOKE. "The last time I saw one of these KORPS insignias, I was working down here, in our old MI9 war room. We used to call this place The Bunker. At the height of the secret world war with KORPS, we had 150 agents working here, with over 200 similar bases in other countries. Even then it was a close-run thing" Frank explained.

Dan knocked against the walls causing a metallic echo to fill the room. "Titanium?"

"Correct. This place is a fortress, right underneath MI9 HQ."

"Wow dinosaur alert." Tom noticed the old computers dotted around the room. "How old is this stuff? Did a caveman sit here?" He teased, the teens chuckling along. "That was my desk." Frank admitted. "Ah, the circle mystery." He approached it, noticing whatever he had left there. "A ton of old KORPS junk I collected, all marked the same way. Never did figure out why. Probably just how they marked their trash." He concluded, until Zoe interrupted after noticing a photograph attached to the computer screen. "This girl you're with looks a lot like Stella." She stated, drawing the rest of the team's attention to it. The pair looked young, carefree and Frank had a bandanna on his head. "Nice bandanna" Maddie added.

"Frank, was Stella your girlfriend?" Aneisha questioned him, although the answer was very obvious to them all. Frank grabbed the picture swiftly changing the subject.

"Well, I've solved one mystery." Dan stated, he's taken to exploring the contents of the other desks in the room. "What mystery?" Maddie questioned him. He held up a photograph, one that she recognised to once have been sat in her parent's living room. It was photo of Madeline, barely a toddler, with her big brothers Zach and Xander, and her two older sisters Jasmine and Stephanie. Their grandfather stood within them proudly.
They were all dressed in black, holding poses and mimicking their grandfather's occupation.
"The mystery of what Madeline Beckett looked like as a child." Dan smiled and Maddie moved toward him. Trying to grab it from his hands. "Aww Maddie, you were so cute." Aneisha teased, as Dan held the photo above his head laughing at Maddie's attempt to jump and reach it.

She hadn't seen that photo in a long time. She'd refused to look at it. It had made her angry for a while, taunting her with what was no longer there. This time she wasn't angry. Just sad. But that feeling would never go away.

"Frank, does that mean you got to work with Sir Edmund Beckett?" Tom questioned assuming the desk belonged to Maddie's grandfather, and Frank nodded. "I did. Quite a few times actually. I found him to be quite a mentor, in fact." Frank clarified. Neglecting to mention the rest of the Beckett's that he had worked with, sure that the agents would find out eventually.
Madeline had resorted to jumping onto Dan's back. The blonde boy having a great time winding up the girl. "Focus. Please." Frank warned. Dan placed the photo back onto the desk and Maddie jumped down from his back. "We get it. KORPS was a big deal. But come on, they're really just the old version of SKUL." Dan spoke. "And look what we did to SKUL. Bosh!" Tom joined him.

Frank sighed. "You're not getting it at all. Look..." Frank walked over to a large wall, turning on a small lap, highlighting a few SKUL emblems and pathways. "This is SKUL." The team watched as he explained. "And this... This is KORPS." Frank turned on another light, this time lighting up the entire wall. KORPS was several times bigger and badder than SKUL ever was. "Whoa."

"The voice we heard on the message on the laptop said they were back," Zoe remembered. "And I'm telling you it's not possible. I saw them destroyed. They're never coming back."